{"id":502,"date":"2017-04-25T05:04:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T05:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/?p=502"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:41:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:41:26","slug":"admit-your-family-business-needs-help-before-its-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2017\/04\/25\/admit-your-family-business-needs-help-before-its-too-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Admit your family business needs help before it&#8217;s too late"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a 2007 article published in the New York Times, author Nora Klaver of May Day! Asking for Help in Times of Need says that asking for help \u201cmakes business sense.\u201d Yet, it is rare that small-business owners \u2014 especially family owned businesses \u2014 will admit that they need help, much less become proactive in asking for it.<\/p>\n<p>Fear. Embarrassment. Pride. That&#8217;s why people don\u2019t ask for help.<\/p>\n<p>What these owners don\u2019t realize is that if they really need help and don\u2019t ask for it, they create conflicts within their family and business relationships.<\/p>\n<p>Here are three \u201cperfect storms\u201d brewing and ready for conflict resolution \u2014 if only someone would ask:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Four siblings own a marketing agency. The eldest has been through alcohol rehab twice but continues to work and drink at the office. The younger brother never talks to his brother, and ignores his decisions. The CFO sister has \u201cchecked out\u201d to avoid her brothers\u2019 animosity. The sister who doesn\u2019t work there has options on how to assert herself in the situation.<\/li>\n<li>A dad and daughter co-own a niche company, although he spends most of his time in warmer climates while she runs the business. While she is having an affair with her sales manager, employees have lost respect for the owners and all too readily see the thorny, sex harassment issues that can negatively impact the culture. Many will decide it\u2019s time to leave.<\/li>\n<li>Siblings who work in their dad\u2019s business need to face up to the dominating woman who has run the company for 30 years. She tends to \u201cprotect\u201d the dad from stress by deciding what information he needs to know. While the dad would like to be advised on a succession plan, this woman does not want change until she\u2019s ready to retire, thus she puts off the advisors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In any one of these situations, one would think someone would reach out and ask for help. But all of them have been approached and none of them want it. They are afraid to face the truth. They don\u2019t want to open the proverbial \u201ccan of worms\u201d because, deep down, they really do know just how bad things are, and it\u2019s easier to avoid it than it is to face the truth. Once the can is opened, it can\u2019t be sealed up again.<\/p>\n<p>They are embarrassed to admit the truth. They don\u2019t see themselves as being unable to have a happy family and a healthy business without outside assistance, so if others were to find out about their problems, it would pose an immense embarrassment for them.<\/p>\n<p>They are too proud to ask for help. Their attempts at perseverance usually do little more than enable the problems to continue, but persevering under hellish conditions feeds their personal pride that they can muscle through it all and keep a smile on their face. Is this what they really want?<\/p>\n<p>They don\u2019t see the connection between resolving conflict in the business and having better family relationships. Fear. Embarrassment. Pride. This is why people don\u2019t ask for help. This is why family-run businesses fail, too.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: English, Bill., Apr 20, 2017, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/philadelphia\/how-to\/funding\/2017\/04\/how-to-admit-your-family-business-needs-help.html\">http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/philadelphia\/how-to\/funding\/2017\/04\/how-to-admit-your-family-business-needs-help.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a 2007 article published in the New York Times, author Nora Klaver of May Day! Asking for Help in Times of Need says that asking for help \u201cmakes business sense.\u201d Yet, it is rare that small-business owners \u2014 especially family owned businesses \u2014 will admit that they need help, much less become proactive in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Admit your family business needs help before it&#039;s too late - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2017\/04\/25\/admit-your-family-business-needs-help-before-its-too-late\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Admit your family business needs help before it&#039;s too late - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a 2007 article published in the New York Times, author Nora Klaver of May Day! 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